Harpo Marx and Some Brothers

EDP 380, Fall 1997

By Aaron Lee

Introduction

In his book entitled Creating Minds, Howard Gardner (1993) engaged
in a thorough study of creativity. He did this by studying the
lives of exceptional creators in seven different domains in search
of trends that could be readily identified and, perhaps, even help
to paint a clearer picture of what the ingredients for creativity
are. After examining these creators' lives he came to some
conclusions based on the trends he identified and formed a model
of creativity. In order to test both his model and his findings,
it is necessary to extend the search (and study) beyond his
initial seven great creators. In doing this it becomes possible to
refute or add credence to his conclusions. This extension also
allows for further questions to be asked.
During the reading of Creating Minds I happened upon an
interesting thought: Could Gardner's model for creative
individuals be applied to the study of a creative group?
Furthermore, would a group show similar trends in their creative
development?
If I was going to attempt to answer this question I decided I
would have to qualify what a creative group was. I defined a
creative group as a group of individuals producing a single
creative work. The creativity of this work must be a result of the
combination of the individuals' strengths being pooled (as equally
as possible) to produce an output that could not have been
produced by any of the individuals on their own. The group would
be analogous to Gardner's individual creator, and the group's
combination of mental talents would parallel the individual
creator's personal array of intellectual strengths.
Having defined what a creative group was, it became necessary to
ask perhaps an even more important question: Could such a group
exist? If so, could an example be found? The answer to both
questions, I decided, was yes. But who? My ponderings on this
subject invariably brought me to the Marx Brothers, kings of
comedy.

My Method

In his study Gardner had followed the lives of his chosen creators
and examined the progression of their works as a function of the
creator and his or her surroundings. It would be difficult to
treat the progression of a group in precisely the same manner. If
I chose to treat the group as a single unit and reported on its
progress and surroundings, the workings of its component creators
could be lost. However, if I did a comprehensive study of each of
the individuals in the group and how they related to the
advancement of the work and the group, I could better analyze if,
indeed, a creative group was actually at work in a manner
analogous to Gardner's creators'. By analyzing each of the
individuals in the group I would be paralleling Gardner's analysis
of the different facets of his individual creators.
For the sake of better accuracy in the case of the former, and for
the sake of as much brevity as possible in the case of the latter;
I chose to employ an amalgam of the two approaches. A
comprehensive look at one of the Marx brothers would be
accompanied by an equally comprehensive look at the group's
progression and a much less comprehensive look at the other
brothers. For reasons perhaps as mystical as those behind
Gardner's choices of his seven creators, I chose Harpo Marx as my
focus.

Comedic Royalty

Perhaps, more than anything else in the world, laughter allows us
to live a more complete, joyful life. Laughter is the fruit of
humor; one of the most complex and yet simplistic entities in our
lives. Humor's complexity comes from its ability to find its way
into almost any situation or domain. Over the years people have
used this trait of humor to their advantage: A painter paints a
comical scene; a writer writes a satirical play; an old man tells
exagerrated tales from his youth.
No one in history has used the universiality of humor more to
their advantage than comedians. There is hardly an area or method
untried in the endless pursuit to get a laugh. It could be said
that no comedian or group of comedians has ever understood or
employed these methods better than the Marx Brothers (Picture of
the Marx Brothers:
http://felix.vcu.edu/~jnoble/marx-bros-playing-insts.jpg). Rising
to great fame and recognition, this group of brothers thrilled the
world with its crazy antics on stage and in film.
In making their mark, the Marx's reshaped the world of popular
comedy and the public's expectation of a comedian. Indeed, few
comedians have ever had as long a lasting influence or been as
well-known. The true genius of their work, however, becomes most
apparent when viewed now; after over fifty years: it still
instills the same fervor and unbridled laughter in "modern"
viewers as it did when it first debuted. The language of their
comedy has not been lost in time. Nor has it gone unperpetuated.
Aspects of Marx brother humor can be found throughout sit-coms,
movies, comedic acts and especially cartoons. Groucho's
wisecracking. Harpo's idiot. They are timeless classics. And so
are the Marx Brothers.

Humble beginnings

If ever there was a less likely family or home to find a group of
future stars of Broadway and film, it was the Marxs flat on the
east side of New York. The tenement lay in a Jewish slum
surrounded by an Irish slum to the north and a German slum to the
south. It was a poor part of town and the Marxs were one of its
poorest families. Both Sam Marx and his wife, Minnie, were
immigrants. Sam was from a predominantly German province in
France; Minnie from Germany.
Sam (or "Frenchie" as the kids called him) and Minnie shared the
apartment with Minnie's parents, Grandma and Grandpa Schoenberg,
their five boys and their niece Polly. Adolph Marx (later to be
known as Harpo), born on November 23, 1888, was the second oldest
of the Marxs boys. Leonard (Chico) was one year older than him;
Julius (Grouch) two years younger; Milton (Gummo) four years
younger; and Herbert (Zeppo), the baby, thirteen years younger. It
was a crowded home and money was hard to come by.
Sam Marx did his best to keep his family fed and sheltered, but
there was only so much he could do: there were ten mouths to feed.
He was a self-employed tailor by trade, and not a very good one at
that. He insisted on not using a measuring tape to size up his
clients. Because of this, he never sold many of the suits he had
so dutifully labored over: they just didn't fit right. Whatever
else he wasn't, Sam was an expert chef. He kept the families
spirits up with miracle meals made from common place ingredients.
When his money (or lack thereof) couldn't appease the land lord,
his cooking often did.
The boys were enrolled in the local public school and experienced
varying degrees of success: Groucho did well and was an avid
reader; Chico was talented in math but low on motivation; Harpo
was a dreamer. To be true, Harpo didn't do too well. His second
grade teacher considered him a pest and let him and the rest of
the class know it on a daily basis. Some of the Irish boys in the
class let him know it too, by throwing him out the window (on the
first floor) just as often. On one of these occasions Harpo had
had enough, so he walked home, turning his back on his formal
education. Later, in his autobiography, Harpo Speaks, he would
recall his reasoning (1961, 27):
School was all wrong. It didn't teach anybody how to exist from
day to day, which was how the poor had to live. School prepared
you for Life - that thing in the far-off future - but not for the
World, the thing you had to face today, tonight. . . . School
simply didn't teach you to be poor and live from day to day. This
I had to learn for myself. . . .

This being decided, Harpo's world quickly changed. At the age of
eight he took on the responsibility for his own education. He
learned to read from the signs on streets and in store windows. He
learned to tell time from the brewery clock that was visible from
their apartment. He learned to play pool and hustle from Chico. He
spent time with his grandfather (by this time his grandmother had
passed away) and learned to speak German. He also learned and
perfected slight of hand (a skill that would come in handy both on
the street [for pick pocket purposes] and in the future on stage)
from his grandfather who had been a traveling magician back in
Germany many years earlier.
While Harpo was learning about life first hand, Minnie was busy
trying to get her boys ready for a life on the stage. It was her
mission. She had gotten her brother, Al Shean, started in show
business and her boys would be next, if she had it her way.
Unfortunately, it seemed that only Groucho had any talent. He was
made to practice his singing quite often; carefully being groomed
into a prospect. Somehow, Minnie managed to get the family a
second-hand piano. It was decided that Chico would learn to play
because he was the oldest and seemingly best equipped to be able
to play it with any promise. Chico endured the lessons only
because he was the oldest and Minnie wished it of him. He turned
out to be an able pupil and quickly became a skilled piano player.
It was during Chico's lessons that Harpo's ear and love for music
began to grow. The family didn't have enough money for both of the
brothers to take lessons, so much as Harpo would have loved to, he
wasn't even allowed to sit in the room and watch Chico's lessons
(it would have raised the rate). He solved this problem by
listening to the lessons from the next room. After the lessons had
ended and the teacher and Chico had left the piano to its own
devices, Harpo would have a seat in front of the piano and begin
trying to piece a song together (based on what he had heard)
playing the piano one-finger style.
He slowly improved through practice and eventually was able to
move to using both hands while correctly playing a song he had
taught himself through listening and tinkering. It was a style he
would employ later in life when teaching himself to play, among
other things, the harp, the violin, the clarinet, the trombone,
and cornet. At no time, however, did he ever bother to learn to
read music. Commenting on this seemingly innate trait, in his book
The Marx Brothers (1950, 20), Kyle Chrichton would say,". . . it
can be said with certainty that there is no musical contraption on
earth which Harpo cannot play after a week of experimental
doodling. Notes baffle him and he has strictly avoided them."
After a year of lessons Chico had reached the point that he was
able to get jobs playing the piano in clubs. In the same time,
Harpo had managed to teach himself two songs (in their entirety)
that he could play with some skill. Taking advantage of these two
facts and the fact that, at the time, they were passable as twins,
Harpo and Chico formulated a plan that would allow both brothers
to get payed to play the piano professionally. Chico would go try
out for a club job and get it. The next day Harpo would show up as
the piano player. It would have been a great plan had it not been
for the fact that there were only so many variations Harpo could
play on the two songs before the club owner would get angry and
kick him out (confused about the seeming disappearance of his
pianist's repertoire). Harpo soon tired of this scene and was
resolved to audition for a job on his own. A short time later he
was hired as the piano play in a brothel.
While Chico and Harpo were conning clubs, Minnie (acting as his
agent) had gotten Groucho started traveling with a group singing
as a boy soprano and actor. After awhile on the road Groucho was
joined by Gummo and they toured as an unnamed singing duo. This
act needed something and Minnie soon found them another singer and
the group became the Three Nightingales.
One day Minnie showed up at the Nickelodeon Harpo was employed at
(he had been fired from the brothel when he came down with
measles) and literally dragged him to the theater where the Three
Nightingales were going to be singing. Minnie thought the group
should be a quartet, so Harpo was unwillfully added. His debut was
probably one the worst in show business history: he wet his pants
on stage. Soon after the Three Nightingales became the Four
Nightingales, the Marxes moved to Chicago and began touring the
Midwest without an itinerary. Describing this experience Harpo
would later say, "WE had brazened our way into strange towns in
the Midwest and down South, where we knew we had three strikes
against us. One: we were stage folks, in a class with gypsies and
other vagrants. Two: we were Jewish. Three: we had New York
accents. And, well-strike four: the Four Nightingales weren't very
good." (Marx, 1961, 98).
It wouldn't be long before the Nightingales would add two girl
singers to the act (Minnie and their Aunt Hannah if no one else
was available) and become the Six Mascots. The Six Mascots proved
to be more successful than the Nightingales had been, but not by
much. It was in Texas in 1912 that the Six Mascots disappeared and
the Marx Brothers were born. The Six Mascots had been asked to
stay an extra night and do another show, but only if they did a
different show. They only had their music revue, so they decided
to do a comedy show about school. They wrote it that night and
named it Fun in Hi Skule. Groucho took the role of the teacher and
Harpo took the role of the class idiot wearing what would become
his trademark costume. The show was such a success that it became
the main part of their show.

The Marx Brothers are Born

A short time after this, in Waukegan, Illinois, the Marx Brothers
and Co. (as they were now billed) were in the middle of the first
bit of Fun in Hi Skule when Harpo noticed something strange about
the piano player in the orchestra pit: it was Chico. Harpo,
Groucho and Gummo then began throwing things at Chico in the pit,
until he came up on stage and joined the show. Remembering this in
his autobiography (1961), Harpo would say:
I don't remember much about the rest of the performance that
night, except that Chico ad libbed a hilarious part as an Italian
boy, and the fiddle player in the orchestra was so broken up (from
laughing) he nearly stopped the show. The fiddle player was a
local kid named Benny Kubelsky. Until this day - when, as Jack
Benny, he's know as Waukegan's First Citizen - he still can't look
at the Marx Brothers without breaking up. (117)

With Chico now in the act the show continued to tour. A short time
later the Marxes received their first review in a paper from a
local critic. "The frolicsome Marx Brothers, with their operatic
antics were a welcome and refreshing change from the usually tired
vaudeville act we've been seeing on Main Street." It was a sign
of things to come.

Harpo: eloquent silence

With the success of Fun in Hi Skule, the Marx Brothers decided to
add another act to the play. Their initial try didn't turn out the
way they wanted, so they asked their uncle, Al Shean (by then a
comic of some fame) to write one for them. He did, but failed to
write any lines for Harpo. Harpo wasn't too happy with this, but
resolved to add lib any lines he could think of. A critic in the
Champaign-Urbana, after watching him try this, had this to say
about Harpo's performance, "The Marx Brother. . . takes off on an
Irish immigrant most amusingly in pantomime. Unfortunately the
effect is ruined when he speaks." (Marx, 1961, 121).
Taking this to heart, Harpo decided to rely soley on his pantomime
talents when on stage. "I went silent. I never uttered another
word, on stage or in front of a camera, as a Marx Brother." (Marx,
1961, 122). To augment his pantomime acting, Harpo was constantly
trying to figure out what he could do (without speaking) to add to
the act. This led to him adding a great deal of props to the act
including his horn, which he stole off of a taxi before going on
stage one night.
Then one more prop was added, this one by Minnie: a harp. She had
the harp sent to Harpo and after two weeks it was in the show. It
was well received. Then, "After a year of hunt and pick, ponder
and pluck, and trial and error," Harpo played his first harp solo
in a show. " I got a big hand and a demand for an encore." (Marx,
1961. 124) (Picture of Harpo with his harp:
http://felix.vcu.edu/~jnoble/harpo-playing-harp.jpg). With his
pantomiming and harp now entrenched in the act, Harpo began to
receive some acclaim. An article in "Variety" (Feb. 7, 1919) said
this of him: "Arthur Marx, known as "Harpo," because of his
adeptness with the harp, is the sole survivor on the American
vaudeville stage of the school of pantomime. Without saying a word
he draws most of the laughs of the act, and that not by virtue of
mere mugging, but by the utility of props, gestures, and
psychological situations."
(http://members.aol.com/marxbroths/content.htm)

Minnie's boys on Broadway

The Marx Brothers continued to do well into the early twenties.
Gummo left the act to be a soldier in WWI, so Zeppo joined the
show to take his place. It was at this time that they started the
play I'll Say She is that would eventually take them to Broadway
(with the help of Minnie's relentless pursuits as their manager).
They started out playing in Boston and Philadelphia, where one
critic (Waters in Variety, 1923) would say, "The opening of the
new revue, I'll Say She Is, . . . was . . . voted a very
promising entertainment." (For entire review see:
http://www.pipeline.com/~coolzip/issi/reviews.htm). With reviews
like this, Minnie was able to secure some dates for the play to be
tried out on Broadway. If they did well the Marx Brothers were
in; if they didn't, they were out.
On May 19, 1924, I'll Say She is not only did well, but it brought
down the house. After viewing their opening night performance,
prominent critic Alexander Woollcott, particularly impressed with
Harpo, became an instant life-long fan:I'll Say She Is. . . is a bright colored and vehement setting for
the gongs on of the talented cutups, the Marx Brothers. In
particular, is a splendacious . . . excuse for going to see that
silent brother, that shy, unexpected, magnificent comic among the
Marxes. . . Harpo Marx. Surely there should be dancing in the
streets when a great clown comic comes to town, and this man is a
great clown. . . .Harpo Marx . . . says never a word from first to
last, but when by merely leaning against one's brother one can
seem richly and irresistible amusing why should one speak? (For
entire review see:
http://www.pipeline.com/~coolzip/issi/reviews.htm)

When their second Broadway play, The Cocoacnuts, opened Woollcott
would write, "I cannot recall ever having laughed more helplessly,
more flagrantly and more continuously in the theatre than I did at
the way these Marxes carried on last evening." (For rest of review
see: http://www.pipeline.com/~coolzip/coconuts/reviews.htm). . The
Cocoanuts would play a total of 275 performances, all of them
successful.
In 1928 the Marx Brothers would open their third Broadway play,
Animal Crackers. Once again they scored a hit. In the New York
Herald Tribune on October 24, 1928, Percy Hammond (critic)
acknowledged not only the talent of the Marx Brothers, but their
ascension to the top of Broadway:
In this erratic extravaganza the Marx boys commit their usual
amount of mischief without much help from the authors. The book is
rather a lame goose, and the tunes are spiritless, but Zeppo,
Chico, Harpo and Groucho manage to disguise the failings of the
show and cause them to be forgiven. Particularly, of course, Mr.
Groucho Marx successful in overcoming the disadvantages of his
surroundings. . . . Mr. Harpo Marx's pantomimic idiot is also a
large item in the entertainments's assets, going even further than
is his custom to amuse us with his silence and fun. The velvet
Italian accents and the humorous piano-playing of Mr. Chico Marx
are humorously utilized. . . . It may be said with practically no
peril that the Marx family justifies itself as a Broadway
institute by its skillful interpretation of the principal
characters in Animal Crackers. (See review at:
http://www.pipeline.com/~coolzip/crackers/reviews.htm

Not only had the Marx Brothers arrived on Broadway, but they had
become its best loved troupe.
For more information on the Marx Brothers on Broadway, including
scripts, reviews and show posters, see:
http://www.pipeline.com/~coolzip/broadway.htm

The Marx Brothers on the Silver screen

Given the institution that the Marx Brothers had become on
Broadway, it was inevitable that Hollywood would come calling. The
Marx Brothers signed a contract with Paramount and began planning
for their first movie: a film version of their Broadway hit The
Cocoanuts. The production of this movie was begun during the
Broadway run of Animal Crackers. The brothers would work on the
taping of the movie during the day and perform on stage in the
evening. Their hard work paid off: in 1929 The Cocoanuts turned
out to be a successful movie as well. In 1930 Animal Crackers
joined The Cocoanuts by becoming a successful movie that was
basically just a filmed version of a stage production.
Beginning with the films Horse Feathers and Monkey Business, in
1931 the Marx Brothers movies became entirely film productions.
1933 saw the release of what is considered by many to be one of
the best of the Marx Brothers' movies, Duck Soup. This would be
the movie in which the Marx Brothers would find their movie style
that would allow them to rise to the top of Hollywood (much the
same as I'll Say She Is allowed them to rise to the top of
Broadway). This movie would mark a changing point for cinematic
comedy, and contains some of the most classic and most imitated
scenes of all time.
With the success of Duck Soup, the Marx Brothers became a
Hollywood institution. Beginning with The Cocaonuts in 1929 and
ending in the TV film of 1959, The Incredible Jewel Robbery, the
Marx Brothers would star in over twenty films, all of them
successful. In this span they would become to embody Hollywood;
many saw Groucho, with his oversized cigars and obnoxious mustache
as the embodiment of Hollywood (Chricton, 1950). As a reflection
of this success, MGM bought out the Marx Brothers contract,
signing to the most lucrative deal in Hollywood's history (up to
that time): fifteen percent of all box office earnings (Chricton,
1950, 295); with a Marx Brothers movie, fifteen percent was a gold
mine.

Harpo goes to Moscow

In the fall of 1933, Harpo received a call from his by then good
friend, Alexander Woollcott: "I've decided that Harpo Marx should
be the first American artist to perform in Moscow after the U.S.
and the U.S.S.R. become friendly nations. Think of it!" (Marx,
1961, 297). Woollcott figured that with Harpo's pantomimic
capabilities he would be a hit in Soviet Russia; Harpo decided to
give it a try.
After a slight delay with the Soviet customs (they thought Harpo
was a spy), Harpo was able to get into Moscow. He was assigned his
own personal guide (spy to make sure he wasn't a spy) and given an
appointment with the head of the department of Soviet theater to
set up some dates for appearances; he wasn't given any. After a
week of trying Harpo was ready to leave the country when the
Soviet Foreign Minister (Stalin's right hand man, Litinov)
rectified things and got him a Soviet group of actors to put
together a show. For the show Harpo would play a harp solo, a
sketch with his clarinet and a pantomime piece with the rest of
the group.
Harpo's opening night in Moscow was arguably the best opening
night in comedic history. "I'll be a son of a bitch if I didn't
knock them out of their seats. . . . I only had to wiggle an
eyebrow to bring the house down." (Marx, 1961, 317). The Soviet
crowd was awestruck. At the end of the show Harpo would make
curtain call after curtain call. On the next day, one Soviet
critic would write that Harpo had received, "an unprecedented
standing ovation, lasting ten minutes." (Marx, 1961,318). Harpo
loved every minute of it, "No other success ever gave me quite the
same satisfaction. Besides, it happened on my fortieth birthday."
(Marx, 1961, 318).
In the six weeks that the show ran in Russia Harpo became a
celebrity. The show was an incredible success. Everywhere it
played it received the same enthusiastic response it had met in
Moscow. Harpo had shown that comedy, particularly his, could
transcend culture. It was the defining moment in his career.

The Work

The Marx Brothers had found amazing success in their careers, but
did they change their domain? Yes. Not only did they affect what
came after them, but they changed the direction that the American
comedy scene had been headed:
. . . their method is in direct contrast to an earlier school that
created humor by making large matters trivial. A cannon going off
in the neighborhood of Jolson or Cantor will be accepted with a
light wave of the hand, showing unconcern. . . . The Marxes have a
method directly opposite. A man meets Groucho and asks him how he
is. Groucho looks at him in amazement. 'How am I?' says Groucho.
'You want to know how I am. A man can't even feel bad without a
lot of nosy people wanting to make something of it. How am I? As
if you cared. A hypocrite. Next thing you'll be asking for a
match. I suppose you go around everywhere asking people to lend
you matches? But if I don't have a match - you'll be sore, eh? I
lend you a match and then you want me to lend you my wife, and
eventually you'll get me lending you a fortune. You'd like to see
me lending you a fortune, wouldn't you? I can see it in your eyes.
Just a passing acquaintance, and you say, lend me a fortune.'"
(Chricton, 1950, 299).

The Marx Brothers managed to take every simple activity and blow
it out of proportion. This exaggeration leads to a constant state
of excitement and energy. In fact, watching their work today is
almost like watching a living cartoon. The mistake would be to
assume that they were mimicking the cartoons, this is not the
case. Many different cartoons draw a great deal of inspiration
from the Marx Brothers, In fact, it's not uncommon to see a Marx
Brothers sketch show up in cartoons. Specifically, their mirror
sketch in Duck Soup may be the most imitated scene in movie
history.
The influence of this style is far reaching. Almost all comedy of
today relies on the Marxist tendency to exaggeration. Tim Allen
and his tools; Jerry Seinfeld takes the most normal situations of
our lives and makes them seem funny; Robin William takes the best
of Harpo and Groucho and keeps you laughing the whole time.
Why do we love the Marx Brothers? From their stage acrobatics and
there seemingly unlimited energy to their exaggeration and
constant pesting, they remind us of children. They make us see the
world through the eyes of children again and allow us to laugh,
like children. They give us the gift of youth.

Conclusion

Do the Marx Brothers fall under my definition of a creative group?
Can the Marx Brothers fit into Gardner's model? Do the Marx
Brothers, as a group, show the same trends in development as
Gardner's individual creators? I proposed at the beginning of the
paper; hopefully, in reading this paper, you will be able to agree
with my conclusion that the answer to all three of these questions
is "yes."
In his biography about the Marxes, Chricton (1950, 305), sums up
the Marx Brothers perfectly, "The Marx Brothers are coherent as a
group and entirely individual otherwise. Gummo is easy going and
gentle; Zeppo is tough and practical; Harpo is fully rounded in
temperament and invariably content; Chico is happiest of all and
doesn't give a damn; Groucho worries from day to night. . . ."
This group coherency is what allowed to the Marxes to exist as a
creative entity, while the individuality of each of the brothers
added, each in his own way, to the greater whole. In this way the
analogy of the Marx Brothers to Gardner's individual creators, and
the individual brothers' strengths to Gardner's creators' mental
strengths. Probably the most interesting part of my dual study was
the realization that not only could the Marx Brothers fit into
Gardner's model, but so too, could Harpo (with about equal amount
of variance as Gardner's seven creators).
The main themes that seemed to arise from Gardner's model were
marginality, domain-changing creativity, the ten year rule, the
Faustian bargain and support systems before and during the time of
the breakthrough works. Both the Marx Brothers and Harpo exhibited
a great amount of marginality, not just from their background but
also within their field. The Marx Brothers running the circuit in
the small, nontraditional theaters to begin, and Harpo as a
pantomime and harp player in the realm of theater. As discussed in
the above section, the Marx Brothers did, indeed change their
domain, but did Harpo? Harpo revolutionized the way people
performed comedy. Not only did he use physical movements, in the
tradition of Chaplain, but he extensively used props to augment
his humor.
Gardner found, in his creators, the trend of a great deal of
support leading up to the breakthrough and a period of isolation
leading to the breakthrough. The greatest support for the Marx
Brothers came from their, mother, Minnie with her master plan.
Her support falls along the line of Joseph Kennedy, who with an
equal will, but a different domain, pushed his boys into greatness
in their field. Whatever support wasn't found with Minnie was
found from each other and the amazing number of friends the Marx
Brothers accumulated over the years. The Marx Brothers' act
traveled alone on the road and had to depend on its own resources
to develop; but, being a group, they were never really in
isolation individually.
The theme that Gardner discovered that seems to be the hardest for
people to believe or support is his ten year rule, fortunately, it
does seem to apply not only to the Marx Brothers, but to Harpo as
well:

Initial
Breakthrough

~10 years

~20 years

Marx Bros.:

Fun In Hi Skule
marks the beginning
of the Marx Bros.
and their comedic
style. (1912)

I'll Say She Is
takes the Marx
Bros. to the
heights of
Broadway.
(1924)

Alexander
Woollcott's
review in which
he hails Harpo
as a "great
clown":
beginning of
his acclaim
(1924).

Trip to the
Soviet Union
and his single
greatest
success.(1934)

The choices of the breakthroughs could be argued, but the same is
true of Gardner's findings. I actually did not expect to find the
trend at all and wasn't looking for it, it just appeared when I
wrote down the dates of both the Marxs' and Harpo's
accomplishments. This did not, however happen with the Faustian
bargain: I could find no indication of it with either group.
The question could be asked if Harpo, Groucho or Chico could have
been successful without the Marx Brothers. The fact that all three
of these brothers went on to successes after or independent of the
Marx brothers shows that they were indeed talented, but could they
have done it alone? I don't think so. The synergy of the Marx
Brothers allowed each brother to develop and grow within the
group. This allowed not only the group to grow, but allowed the
brothers themselves to be able to move on after the group had
broken up. Groucho was able to write books and be a TV quiz
master; Chico played with a band; Harpo painted, played his harp,
and wrote a wonderful autobiography (not bad for a guy never
finished the second grade). Separately, they may have never been
able to tap into that talent they had deep inside that allowed
them to change a domain. Together they not only became individual
creators themselves, but were able to build off one another and
create something wonderful: The Marx Brothers.